|
Jordan World War II to 1967
The Arab rebellion that occurred in Palestine from 1936 to 1939
led to additional measures to strengthen the legion, which on the
eve of World War II consisted of about 1,350 officers and men. One
thousand of these troops were organized for police duties and the
remaining 350 made up the Desert Mobile Force, which then comprised
two mechanized cavalry companies, having as its mission the
prevention of Arab rebel incursions from Palestine.
Although the Arab Legion saw little action in the war, the
mobile force became part of the tiny British columns that marched
against Iraq and the Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon in 1941. It
established an excellent record that prompted its expansion to a
mechanized infantry brigade but, by the time this unit was ready
for action, the war in the desert was over. The Arab Legion was
subsequently detailed to strategic guard duties as individual
companies throughout the Middle East. These operations provided
experience that was to prove valuable when Arab-Israeli
difficulties erupted in the postwar era. By the end of the war, the
legion had expanded to a force of about 8,000, but postwar economy
measures reduced its size to 6,000 by May 1948, when the British
gave up their Palestine Mandate. At the same time, the TJFF was
disbanded, and many members of the unit were absorbed into the
legion.
About 4,500 legionnaires were combat troops at the time the
Arab-Israeli War began in 1948. Moving across the Jordan River, the
legion occupied most of the West Bank and assumed control of the
strategic Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Commanded by Glubb and about
forty British officers, the legion fought better than any other
Arab force and held its positions longer when Israel took the
offensive in January 1949. The fighting left the legion in
occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem and much of the Arab areas
of Palestine that made up the West Bank.
During the 1948 war, the legion's strength was expanded
hurriedly to approximately 8,000. As a consequence of the British
withdrawal, for the first time the legion had to develop its own
technical support services. A small air force unit was created for
logistics, reconnaissance, and liaison purposes, then enlarged in
1955 to include a modest combat element
(see Jordan - Air Force
, this ch.).
By early 1956, when Hussein dismissed Glubb as commander of the
military establishment, the legion had grown to about 23,000
officers and men. After Glubb's departure it was redesignated the
Jordan Arab Army, and the national police element of about 6,000
was shifted from the military to be brought under the supervision
of the minister of interior.
Between 1951 and 1956 an entirely new National Guard was
formed, originally consisting merely of armed Palestinians in
villages of the West Bank vulnerable to Israeli raids. It was later
built up within Jordan proper by a conscription system, forming a
territorial reserve army. Guardsmen, predominantly Palestinians,
were unpaid except for a small wage during their annual training
period under officers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs) of the
legion. In 1965 the National Guard, by then a force of 30,000, was
disbanded because of its unreliability and susceptibility to PLO
influence. About 40 percent of these troops, after passing careful
screening for loyalty to the monarchy, were allowed to join the
Jordan Arab Army.
Although Jordan had signed a tripartite military treaty with
Egypt and Syria in October 1956, a few days before Israel's attack
on Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula, the conflict was confined to the
Egyptian front. Israeli troops were positioned along the borders
with Syria and Jordan in the event that these countries joined the
fighting, but the alliance was not invoked.
Data as of December 1989
|
